St. Marks 7/3 Scalloping....Yeah Right

Post by **Tom Keels** » July 6th, 2004, 8:25 am

Myself, my pawinlaw and Wil hit the light house about 7 am. Seas were slick calm and we were going scallop hunting. Wil was kind enough to bring along his pole spears and spearguns so we'd have a backup plan.

We ran to a small group of rocks near the second stake in 9 feet of water and hopped overboard. I was first in the water and immediately saw a nice keeper gag. I tried to catch up to him but he ran into a crack into the rock. I messed around some of the rocks seeing the occasional short gag, porgies and rock bass. I shot 1 porgie, but he was a little short.

I had gone south and Wil went north. I was back in the boat and noticed Wil shooting. Apparently the rocks north were full of grouper and sheephead. Wil got one sheephead and released a 21.99" gag that he got a tail shot on.

Now that the sun was up we went looking for scallops around the area that I head seen some in June. Wil was better than me and got twice as many as I did on the first stop. BTW, I got one (1) scallop.

We hit 2 or 3 more places and found zip, zilch, zero, nada. So it was time to spearfish some more.

We headed over to my favorite rock that I like to chum over in 8 feet. The tide was near slack and the vis was awesome. Once again I was in the water first. We anchored a good 100 feet away from the rocks to sneak up on the fish. When I got to the rock pile the first thing I saw was 8-10 mangrove snappers all in the 3-4 pound range. I took off after them and barely missed one with the spear. I found the rock though and rolled the point over pretty good on the shaft. As I was swimming up to the rock I look down to see a keeper gag laying in a valley. I quickly reloaded but he booked it down the rock into a hole on the other end.

There was bait and fish everywhere on these rocks. I took shots at everything I could and hit quite a few fish, but the spear was dull as a pencil eraser. I shot big flounder that pulled off the spear, and for the record a pole spear with a dull tip will bounce off a 8 pound sheephead like a superball on asphalt. All in all a bust for me and for everyone else, but what a beautiful dive. I'll be back with a freeshaft and those fish better watch out.

The last place was a little deeper (10 feet) but also was covered in fish. The vis however had gone to hell with the tide, and the jellyfish were awful. I got in an speared a nice spanish only to have the flopper not open and he swam off with a quarter size hole in him. Wil shot a nice sheephead, but paid the price with a facefull of jellyfish.

We called it a day about 11:15 and were off the water at noon to beat the storms and the crowds. Nice day IN the water though. Seas never got above a ripple and vis was very good. Also added a new spot to the GPS.

No scallops though. Looks like keaton or steinhatchee if you want them. Plenty of keeper grouper shallow though.

Post by **Sea Fox** » July 6th, 2004, 9:00 am

WTG, Tom. What a way to find new fishing spots. sounded real fun right up to the jelly fish part. Kinda surprising to here about keeper grouper and mangroves in 9 to 10 ft.

Post by **Tom Keels** » July 6th, 2004, 9:06 am

Wasn't surprised about the grouper as much as the big mangroves. I've caught a bunch of keeper grouper in 10 feet or less.

Post by **Sawbones** » July 6th, 2004, 9:14 am

Post by **mjsigns** » July 6th, 2004, 9:26 am

AAAwesome report

Post by **Aucilla** » July 6th, 2004, 10:03 pm

Boy that was nice Tom. It is good to see a spearfishing report and especially one of on inshore adventure, maybe approachable by us with the tiny boats. And it sounds like a lot of fun was had. I just posted a question in the diving subforum, and this report of yours is a partial answer for me.

So, I am really looking forward to trying some of this, and at this rate I will do so this summer! Thanks for the report! I can't wait for more!